Thanks for the compliments everyone. I think the china cabinet is the best deal I ever ran across. It had a price marked on it of $800.00 and I didn't want to spend that much, so I kept on looking. That night DH was online trying to find some plans because he thought he might build me a china cabinet and he came across the same china cabinet for $4700.00!! Now that changed things! So I went back to the DAV store and asked if they would take any less. The lady came down to $650.00. I stood around and thought about it until DH said, "Well, do something! Either buy it or let's go." He had gotten tired of my standing and staring stage! So I finally went back and asked if they would take $500.00 and they said YES!!!!!!! DH did an excellent job of repairing the claw foot, and replacing the side glass, as well as rewiring the lights to make them work. I love it! Betty

Joe, I don't know if Tex-Mex can be defined precisely. I'll do my best. To me it is food using the same basic ingredients that are used throughout Mexico, but with its own regional style. Mexico itself has many regional styles and I think of Tex-Mex as one more of those. For instance, Tex-Mex style chile con carne is not found in Mexico, that I know of, although similar dishes are. Some regions favor flour tortillas, in others it's corn. Each region has its own type of tamale. A few things are universal to all regions. The details would probably take pages to itemize and I don't know enough about Tex-Mex to do that. Sankum, I enjoy Indian food and have made some progress in learning to cook it. However, it has been one of the more difficult cuisines for me get a solid understanding of. The cooking techniques and recipes are generally quite different from other cuisines. My favorite Indian cook book is Classic Indian Cooking by Julie Sahni. I like the videos by Manjula. Jim

Don't want to overload you, but I'll throw this one into the pot: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/vegetables/butternut-squash-gratin-with-creamed-spinach/ it's listed with butternut squash and spinach, but I think would work with any vegetables. It's thickened cream on the spinach, then the top gets dotted with cr�me fra�che and sprinkled with fresh grated parmesan before being baked. I was very happy to find a slightly-sophisticated veggie dish that could be made ahead with no ill effects. I grated the cheese into a baggie and made and refrigerated the cr�me fra�che when I put it together. Not sure how busy your Thanksgiving morning is, but we have to have several things ready beforehand to avoid total chaos. It could probably even be assembled a couple of hours before being baked, since there are no breadcrumbs in the topping.

Made my first batch of stovetop lasagne and it is going to become one of my "go to" recipes. Great for using up spare pasta, which I almost always seem to have around, particularly lasagne sheets. Also great for when you feel like eating lasagne but don't feel like fussing with assembly. This is a combo recipe from Tyler Florence and Pillsbury. Skillet Lasagne Before starting the meat you can make a mirpoix of oil, onions, carrots and celery if you want, or some green pepper and mushrooms, whatever you would like in your pasta sauce, but if you use a jarred or canned sauce you don't have to do this, particularly if your sauce already contains onions, etc. So however much you want to flavor it up or not depends on your taste and time. Add garlic towards the end of this step if you want some. 1-2 tsp. is probably enough. I use the lower end of the garlic spectrum. Brown a pound of some type of protein. Most recipes call for ground beef but I used ground turkey and next time I make it I may use a mix of meat and beans, or perhaps some veggie crumbles, and I'll bet you could use part italian sausage for flavor it you're a big meat eater. Salt the meat to your taste as it is browning. If the meat is fatty, drain before proceeding with the dish. Add 1 large jar canned spaghetti sauce or Italian flavored tomato sauce. You need 26-28 fl. ounces of the sauce, so use whatever you have on hand that will equal that amount. I used a 24 oz. jar of Ragu spaghetti sauce and 2 oz. of my own home canned tomato basil sauce. You could also use canned tomatoes and canned tomato sauce, tomato paste, etc. to get the desired amount. Season to your taste with italian seasoning if you like. I tend to do this because I find store bought sauce bland, and if I am making the sauce from just plain tomato sauce, then I want a lot of seasoning. Add 1 1/2 cups water. When mixture is boiling lightly, add 3 cups pasta (you don't want a hard boil because too much of the water might evaporate if you do that, and then the pasta will stick--ask me how I know!). The pasta I used was broken up lasagne noodles and then some campanelii to supplement to 3 cups. You could also use mafalda ribbons. Cook the pasta for about 15 min. Test for pasta being done. Your water should be absorbed and the sauce thickened. Watch out, since this dish actually might get too thick if you're not careful. You can always add more water to it if it starts to get too thick. While the pasta is cooking, make the ricotta topping. The recipe says to use 16 oz. of ricotta, which is a typical container (although mine was 15). For my taste, this is too much, but your mileage may vary. Mix this with about an equal amount of chopped frozen spinach. I had a 16 oz. bag, which I used about half. If I had a 10 oz. package I would use it all. Mix the ricotta and spinach with 1/3 cup grated parmesean, a healthy pinch of basil or oregano or italian seasoning, and 1 TBSLP dried parsley if you have it. If you hate spinach you don't have to add it, just plain ricotta is fine, and if you have some other type of vegetable you would like ti mix in, like kale or shredded zuchinni or something else, by all means do it. When the pasta is done, mix up the casserole to make sure the meat, sauce and pasta are evenly distributed. Spoon the ricotta mixture on top of the casserole and cook 5-7 min. more until the topping is heated through. Then, top the dish with 1 cup of shredded mozzarella or italian style shredded cheese and broil for about 3-4 min. until cheese melts. Here's two pictures of my dish. I was out of shredded mozzarella so I had to use mostly cheddar in my dish.